State job count up in July

Louisiana’s private sector added 39,500 jobs during the 12 months ending in July, an increase of 2.6 percent, figures released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission show.

It was the 23rd straight month with year-over-year private sector job growth in Louisiana and the increase ranked ninth among all states, the commission said in a news release.

Based on estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state had 1,584,600 private sector jobs in July. Total nonfarm employment was 1,942,600 on a seasonally adjusted basis, up 40,800 jobs from July 2011.

A separate BLS survey of households shows the civilian labor force — the number of people working plus those looking for work — grew by 27,999 over the year to a seasonally adjusted total of 2,080,490. This is the second highest level since November 2005 when the civilian labor force stood at 2,109,156, the commission said.

Other estimates from the same survey of households show the number of people employed statewide increased on a seasonally adjusted basis by 20,053 over the year, and the number of unemployed increased by 7,946.

“The important long-term trends all continue heading in the right direction for Louisiana. We have more jobs, more people in the labor pool and more people working,” LWC Executive Director Curt Eysink said in he news release.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate — the proportion of the civilian labor force who are unemployed — increased 0.1 percent over the month to 7.6 percent, which was below the regional rate for the South of 7.9 percent. The national unemployment rate increased to 8.3 percent in July.